Search - Giuseppe Verdi, Tullio Serafin, Rome Opera Orchestra :: Verdi: Otello

SHAKESPEARE'S OWN OPERA

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 03/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Recordings of Verdi's Otello free from major shortcomings are in my experience so rare that I am only too happy to award the full 5 stars when I find such a recording, perfect or ideal though it may not be.



Such reservations as I have about this set are largely concerned with the recorded sound. This is in general not bad at all, being a digital remastering of sound dating originally from 1960. Where it seems less than totally successful is in treating the voices with a rather variable and inconsistent focus - sometimes closer, sometimes more remote. I suspect that the engineering may even have deprived us of the full benefit of the singing at times. The trills that characterise Iago's music, for one thing, were probably more vivid from Gobbi in real life than they come across here. For another, Gobbi is allowed to dominate Vickers more than I suspect he really did in the oath-taking; and while I doubt that Vickers or anyone else ever equalled (if memory serves) del Monaco at `Sangue, sangue, sangue' or in the thrilling flash on the top notes as they swear their oath, I doubt also that we are getting the full value of the treatment that Vickers gave these passages.



Other criticism that I have seen of this set centres on the perception - indisputable indeed if hardly startling - that Serafin is not Toscanini. Toscanini was unique indeed, and there is terrific fury and tension from him at the start that I never heard equalled. However such details, impressive though they are, do not provide a basis for assessing performances of Otello. That is provided by the conducting and the casting overall.



I would say that all three of Serafin's principals, but in particular his Desdemona, surpass Toscanini's. When it comes to the direction, Serafin in his way seems to me to understand this great and difficult score as well as Toscanini does. There is a peculiar atmosphere to Otello, and not everyone really grasps it. Dyneley Hussey in his book on Verdi cites some of the composer's remarks concerning Iago as indicating that Verdi was not a true Shakespearean critic, and thereby blunders straight into the smokescreen of self-attributed simplicity that Verdi liked to hide behind. Sir Edward Heath found Otello `not life-enhancing like Fidelio'. I can well believe that the naïve idealised message of Fidelio with its prisoners being released from their chains would have meant a lot more to Heath as he aspired to free Britain from the Wilson Terror, and that the electric sense of sexual tension that crackles through Otello was a territory as unknown to Heath as to Beethoven himself. Verdi's comments on Iago do not seem simplistic to me, and the character clearly fascinated him. Iago acts from pure calculated malice, something he even believes in as a doctrine. To trigger his malice all it takes is to get on his nerves, as Othello does; and while Iago's malevolence only acts on a small scale many critics have seen his character as typifying one aspect of pure evil. The music Verdi gives him, by turns portentous, grotesque and ingratiating, is complex and elusive in expression, and it is this aspect that Serafin captures with exceptional success.



Shakespeare's Othello is a very operatic tragedy in its own right, before Verdi and his librettist Boito set their own stamp on it. In many ways it might seem the simplest of the Bard's tragedies, but the character of Iago makes it, for me at least, actually the most elusive. As well as having an acute ear for that portrayal Serafin grasps what for me is another key element, namely the way Verdi stands back from the love interest despite the savage drama it gives rise to. The love duet is surpassingly beautiful in an idyllic way, but one has only to think of Tristan to hear the difference between a genuinely erotic drama and the hypertense atmosphere of suspected sexual betrayal and vengefulness out of control that Verdi evokes.



All that, plus the singing of Vickers and Gobbi, leaves me wanting to rate this performance in the highest bracket. The set includes an elaborate booklet containing everything necessary, such as a summary of the plot together with the full libretto (translated into English only, you may be pleased to hear). There are also two sympathetic and informative, if slightly rambling, liner essays. Perfection remains elusive, but I wonder whether I would even know it if I encountered it when it comes to this work."